SALVATIONIST 9 April 2011 3 NEWS
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INSIDE THIS WEEK Lord Coe and GB Cycling Team visit SA Olympic site Hadleigh Farm PAGE 4 〉〉〉〉 Gospel choirs support Tanzanian girls’ home Southend Citadel PAGE 6 〉〉〉〉 PLUS LOTS MORE! Partners in mission PAGE 14 〉〉〉〉 PAPERS ■ ■ MOTHER OF WINNIE THE POOH MURDERED HITS THE BIG SCREEN TEENAGER FINDS ■ DISCOVER IF YOU NEW HOPE IN LIFE SHARE YOUR BIRTHDAY WITH ■ LEFROY HOUSE A CELEBRITY! HELPS HOMELESS ■ TEENS GET OFF MAKE A WINNIE THE THE STREETS POOH EASTER EGG STORAGE BOX ■ ELIZABETH ■ YOUR SPACE TAYLOR’S LEGACY – FEATURING AN ALIVE WHAT WILL WE BE KID READER PROFILE REMEMBERED FOR? AND MORE THIS WEEK’S QUOTES FROM THE PAPERS I DON’T: WEDDING BELLS ARE for the first time in 2009, a rise BRITISH FREEDOMS ‘UNDER THREAT’ FALLING SILENT AS MORE of seven years in almost three Freedom is under threat for Britons, COUPLES REJECT MARRIAGE decades… according to the former Bishop of Fewer people are marrying than The figures reflect a long- Rochester, the Right Rev Michael at any time since the reign of term decline in marriage, with Nazir-Ali, who attacked secular Queen Victoria, official figures falls in all parts of the UK… totalitarianism in a speech to the show. A Church of England Christian Broadcasting Council… And of those who are tying spokesman said: ‘There is a The bishop said: ‘One of the the knot, more are choosing healthy interest in church big fights that we face with hotels and historic houses to weddings, with monthly encroaching totalitarianism is respect marry rather than churches, visitors to our website for conscience. What we are facing is which accounted for only a yourchurchwedding.org not a free society, but an ideology third of all weddings in 2009. increasing to around 50,000 that is seeking to impose its views on The average age at which a per month this year.’ us. We are making the assumption woman marries breached 30 The Times that conscience will be respected because we are living in a free NO PLANS TO BAN SOUP-RUNS, SAYS MINISTER society. But we are not in that society Responding for the Government to a any more… The Government will need to heed question from the Bishop of Ripon and his warning, Bishop Nazir-Ali said: Leeds, the Right Rev John Packer, in the ‘There will be no Big Society unless Lords… Lady Hanham said that the there is a big story that unifies people and gives them a sense of the past Government had ‘no intention of stopping and of destiny. To abandon the soup-runs’ by local charities after Judaeo-Christian story of the Bible Westminster Council had proposed a bylaw and to become prey to the moral and spiritual vacuum we have seen in the preventing the distribution of food to past 40 years… how tragic would homeless people in ‘a very small area’. that be?’ Church Times The Church of England Newspaper TERRITORIAL HEADQUARTERS Tel: 0845 634 0101 SALVATIONIST 101 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BN Tel: 020 7367 4890 Fax: 020 7367 4691 Email: [email protected] Web: www.salvationarmy.org.uk/salvationist A registered newspaper published weekly by The Salvation Army (United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland) on behalf of the General of The Salvation Army and printed by benhamgoodheadprint Limited, Bicester, Oxon. © Linda Bond, General of The Salvation Army, 2011. The Salvation Army Trust is a registered charity. The charity number in England and Wales is 214779, in Scotland SC009359 and in the Republic of Ireland CHY6399. EDITOR Major Stephen Poxon Tel: 020 7367 4901 MANAGING EDITOR Stephen Pearson Tel: 020 7367 4891 ASSISTANT EDITOR Major Jane Kimberley Tel: 020 7367 4892 ASSISTANT EDITOR Claire Anderson Tel: 020 7367 4894 DTP DESIGNER Colin Potter Tel: 020 7367 4895 DTP OPERATOR Denise D’Souza Tel: 020 7367 4896 GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jonathan Carmichael Tel: 020 7367 4883 ADMINISTRATOR Stella Merino Tel: 020 7367 4881 ADVERTISING Tel: 020 7367 4883 Email: [email protected] DISTRIBUTION Salvationist Publishing and Supplies (Periodicals), 66-78 Denington Road, Denington Industrial Estate, Wellingborough NN8 2QH Tel: 01933 445451 Fax: 01933 445415 Email: [email protected] THE SALVATION ARMY FOUNDER William Booth GENERAL Linda Bond TERRITORIAL COMMANDER Commissioner John Matear EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND PUBLISHING SECRETARY Major Leanne Ruthven 2 9 April 2011 SALVATIONIST www.salvationarmy.org.uk/salvationist COMMENT I am grateful to Commissioner William Francis for introducing me to R. S. Thomas’s poem ‘That Great Void’, when he once led a divisional retreat. The poem takes some figuring This day the out (well, it did for me, at any rate), but generously rewards the effort. Thomas refers to God as ‘that great void we must enter’. Who in their right mind would deliberately, voluntarily enter a noise of great void? Colonel Bateman’s topsy- turvy people, that’s who; those who maintain that first is last, that strength is found in surrender and that loss is gain. The same people who look at a bloodstained man on an old battle rugged cross and realise the ribbons of his dripping flesh are ribbons of victory. Personally, I have little or no truck with adopting a countercultural mindset just for the sake of it, ie, without a cause or reasoned motivation. That mindset is probably the bedfellow of anarchy. There is much about common culture that should be embraced, and which is lost if we insist on throwing out several babies every time we swill out the bath water. That, for what it’s worth, is my take on 1 Corinthians 14:33. However, when it comes to E are indebted to Kingdom matters, we stand to lose Lieut-Colonel Alan much more if we refrain from ever W Bateman for his Bible crossing swords with a culture that study on page 15 this persistently seeks to diminish, dismiss week. I like his reference to ‘topsy- or disregard God. As New York’s turvy’ Kingdom values. Far from being Cardinal John O’Connor once said: silly in using such an apparently ‘Neither respectability nor political unusual description of the things of correctness is worth one comma of God, the colonel is spot on. The New the Apostle’s Creed.’ And indeed, as Testament is loaded with stories that our own Commissioner James ‘Decisions are made by people, not are, according to the norms of 2011, Knaggs put it, for the benefit of those things. Therefore, the authority for astonishingly topsy-turvy. We need only of us who might sometimes mistake Christian ethics must be a person, read A. W. Tozer’s Leaning Into The The Salvation Army for the Kingdom of not a thing, not an office or Wind to realise that Christianity is, quite God and in doing so inadvertently institution… In Christian ethics distinctly, a countercultural, somewhat swap one imperfect culture for there is one supreme and final upside down faith. Followers of Christ another: ‘We’re not trying to raise up a authority… The basis of Christian are ‘salmon people’, constantly great Salvation Army. We’re trying to ethics and the authority for any (increasingly, it seems) swimming bring people to the fullness of Jesus act rightly called Christian is the against the tide. Thus it ever was, and Christ.’ person of Jesus Christ.’ we should beware ever signing up in (General Shaw Clifton) the first place if we think otherwise. MAJOR STEPHEN POXON, EDITOR NEWS LETTERS MINDING HIS BUSINESS NEW COMMITMENTS Pages 4 – 8 〉〉〉〉 Page 9 〉〉〉〉 Partners in mission Pages 16 & 17 〉〉〉〉 HadleighFarmMaddistonCityRoadIpswichCitadel Page 14 〉〉〉〉 SouthportKenyaKoreaLeigh-on-SeaSouthendCitadel GovanRushdenHordenBelfastCitadelSheffieldCitadel RETIREMENT FEATURE ANNOUNCEMENTS IlfordBurtonuponTrentNorth-WesternCambridgeCitadel ParkheadClydebankCumbernauldLongEaton Blessed beyond measure BIBLE STUDY Army people, engagements, PrestonWalthamAbbeyStapleHillRhylBirkenhead 〉〉〉〉 SenghenyddStMaryCrayAlton Pages 10 & 11 New Kingdom values tributes and caption Page 15 〉〉〉〉 competition FEATURE Pages 18 & 19 〉〉〉〉 Awards highlight excellent care Pages 12 & 13 〉〉〉〉 ADVERTS Pages 20 – 23 〉〉〉〉 [email protected] SALVATIONIST 9 April 2011 3 NEWS Lord Coe and framed structures which will provide opportunities for riders GB Cycling to take advantage of their techni- cal abilities throughout the races. Team visit SA Multiple options have been created with varying degrees of Olympic site difficulty at a number of the Hadleigh Farm obstacles where the ability of the RIDERS from the GB Cycling riders will be thoroughly tested. Team took to the Mountain Seb Coe added: ‘I am very Biking course for the first time as grateful to Essex County Council the London 2012 Organising and to The Salvation Army for Committee of the Olympic and their hard work in making this Paralympic Games (LOCOG), venue happen. The course is Essex County Council and The challenging with multiple climbs Salvation Army marked the and descents for the riders to completion of course construc- tackle and I believe that the tion works on time and on leigh 2012 Project Manager, in forested areas. The venue Mountain Biking competition budget. Major John Warner, said: ‘The offers some fantastic gradients will be one of the most exciting The 2012 Olympic Mountain Salvation Army has been at for mountain biking and superb events at the London 2012 Biking events will take place at Hadleigh Farm for more than a viewing opportunities for specta- Olympic Games.’ Hadleigh Farm on 11 and 12 century and is delighted to be tors: large sections of the course Liam Killeen, from British August. Construction of the working with LOCOG, Essex will be visible from many loca- Cycling GB, said: ‘The excite- course, on farmland owned by County Council and others to tions across the site. It has been ment of competing in a home the Army and the adjacent enable the Olympic Mountain designed to provide a physical Games is building fast and seeing Country Park, began in July Biking event to take place on and technical challenge for the the finished course whets the 2010 and work is now complete Salvation Army land.’ world’s leading mountain bike appetite even more.